04/24/2024

How to Handle Online Harassment When It Happens to You

Here are the tools you need to weather the storm

In 2022, I wrote an op-ed for NBC News Think about leg hair, of all things. The piece detailed a month-long experiment during which I stopped shaving. Aside from one paragraph about bodily autonomy and Roe v. Wade, I thought it was a mild article. Boring, even.

The internet disagreed. Within an hour of publication, I started getting angry, all-caps emails. Then it started on Twitter. I was called everything from stupid and self-absorbed to a Sasquatch. I was accused of hating men and pressuring women.

The deluge lasted nearly two weeks. By the end of it, I had dozens of nasty emails, nearly a thousand social media notifications and zero idea how to handle what I’d experienced.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.